Kiln Coating

[High Bridge Pottery]

I have been reading a bit of my new kiln book and it says "it is recommended that all surfaces coming into contact with the Kanthal element be coated with alumina or a high-quality refractory cement"

 

Could I mix up the kiln cement I have into a thin wash and sponge it into the element grooves. Would it be any better if I mixed it with some kiln wash? There is still tiny bits of glaze in the grooves, would it be a bad idea to coat over this? I would like to cover over all the tiny bits I couldn't remove from the brick.

 

I would like to give these elements the best start in life   without paying for anything more 

[neilestrick]

I recommend the exact opposite. Elements and kiln cement are not a good combination. Kiln cement has soluble materials that would not be good for elements.

 

It is a good idea to get all the glaze bits out of the element grooves, though. Just chisel them out with a small screwdriver.

[High Bridge Pottery]

Ok, so you are saying kiln cement has too much Fe/Na/K?

 

I have spent about 2 hours giving the grooves the best clean out I could, just wanted to wear my belt and braces.

[Babs]

High Bridge, really gouge out all evident glaze or other stuff in the grooves. I did this to what I tought was a satisfactory standard and replaced an element only to have it go again in same place. the stuff that did the damage was almost the same colour as the brick but on further gouging I extracted a lump of stuff which was the obvious culprit. After all the work you've done it'll pay you to spend a lot of time with your head in there checking each channel. And a super powered vacuum sucker.

Just keep your feet on the ground